Starting To Learn Guitar Chords

Starting To Learn Guitar Chords? Practice Basic Open Chords First

Yes, get these chords under your belt and you are on your way to play many songs and impress your friends! You cannot call yourself even a beginner guitarist if you don’t know these chords.

Mastering chords gives you the license to play your guitar alongside a singer. Some beginners think that playing guitar only means being able to play a tune of their favorite songs. That is just one side of the coin… er… guitar. Chords, as the definition will tell you, is a combination of three or more notes played together. So, instead of just plucking a particular string, you would strum multiple strings.

Without further ado, let me get straight into the basic open chords.

Remember while you are practicing, strum the chords and then play each of the note individually still holding your left hand to ensure every note is sounding right.

Easy Major Chords

The D major is a very easy chord to play. Just ensure that you don’t strum the 5th and 6th string. That would sound real bad. A little bit of practice and it would become second nature to leave those strings.

If you want your chords to sound good, always remember which strings have to be hit and which have to be left.

I don’t think you would find a more easy chord to play except maybe its minor version. In this chord you don’t have to worry about any string to leave as all the strings need to be strummed.

This chord can take you some time to get comfortable with. The fingers get crammed thereby making it difficult. Though it might seem tougher to play at first, it is quite easier than it seems. Our fingers are very dexterous and adjust quickly with practice. So, practice!

There is an alternative way of playing this chord by barring the three strings, but this is advanced way of doing it and if you are starting out with chords, I would suggest the previous way.

Easy Minor Chords

The easiest chord in the world of Guitar. Similar to E major with the first finger lifted.

Since the requirement is of pressing only two frets and we have four fingers at our disposal, you can choose any two fingers you are comfortable with. It usually depends upon the chord which follows next while playing any song.

Exactly like the E major chord but all moved downwards a string. Ensure you don’t hit the sixth string. Well, it won’t destroy the song if you did hit the sixth string, but I am just trying to make you Mr. Perfect!

Personally, during my small guitaring experience, I have used this way of playing the chord fewer times than others. But that’s just my style. There is an alternative barre chord which is more common. But it pays to know this as well, so practice it.

The beautiful and My Favorite G Major Chord!

Yes, it is my favorite chord. Really don’t know why. Probably a result of some weird connection between ear and heart!

This chord brings an interesting stretch to your fingers. Again, the dexterity of your fingers will make it easy with practice. This is a very important chord to learn as it opens up lots of good songs for you. So practice it hard and make sure you play each note individually as well.

Some people do not play the note on the 2nd string. Your wish… for me, it makes the chord sound fuller with that note than without.

The Most Popular C Major Chord

Seems to creep in every other song that I play! You have got to master this. And it’s easy too.

A few important things to note about this chord. The sixth string should not be played for the chord to sound correct. You can use the third finger to mute the sixth string by lightly touching it with the tip. Also, ensure that the first finger doesn’t touch the third string even slightly else it won’t sound properly.

The Fearsome F Major Chord

A nightmare for every beginner! No use fearing it… go straight at it!

The tough part here is holding both the first and second string frets with your first finger. In other words, you have to bar the frets. It is a precursor to the barre chords which will come later. I prefer the barre version of this chord but it is recommended to start learning with this one.

Keep your arms relaxed while practicing this chord, a stiff arm hinders practice along with more pain (which we wrongly attribute to practicing guitar!

Ok, so above are all the basic Open Chords which you must know to call yourself a beginner guitarist. Notice that the major chords exhibit happiness whereas the minor chords sounds melancholic. Can you feel it?

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